Lefties by Bonnie Le Hamitlon

Lately, I’ve seen a lot of things about lefties. First, just this last week, I was reading an online article about different things service people have seen, and one of the stories was a waitress walking up to a table as the mother took the handle end of her knife and rapped the knuckles of her 5 year-old daughter, telling her that nice ladies use their right hand.

I was absolutely appalled! How Victorian can you get? I mean really?

Okay, I know as recent as when I was growing up, people considered it best to teach all children to use their right hand (Konnie has clear memories of teachers scolding her for using her left hand, and that is the reason she is ambidextrous today.)

Aside from her experience, I’ve heard stories of people having emotional difficulties later in life because of the abuse they endured in their youth over what hand to use!

The fact is, today we know better! We know there is nothing wrong with being a lefty. Beyond that, what that mother said and did to her child was abuse! That is just wrong.

Enough said about that deplorable story. 

Here are a few I know about lefties:

First, Konnie isn’t my only lefty sibling.

Our baby brother, the youngest of the bunch, is a lefty. Of course, he so much younger than us that by the time he came along, the world knew there was nothing wrong with being a lefty, and accommodations should be made. Dan had the good fortune of having Konnie for a big sister, let alone that she’d already figured out she was a natural lefty before we learned he was one.

A fact I recently reminded our middle brother of.

Not too long ago I saw a post on Facebook about lefties being creative and such, and it was asking viewers to comment if they knew any lefties, and the first comment I saw was from our middle brother. He posted that his younger brother was a lefty. So, I replied to his comment pointing out that Konnie was too.

Okay, maybe he was too young remember Konnie being the one who had to teach Dan to tie his shoes. I admit we didn’t have to worry about sitting on Konnie’s left side at the dinner table, unlike Dan, but Konnie can use either hand.

Which leads to more stories than anything.

One would be when we went to take our ACT. The test was given at a nearby university and when the whole group entered the room where it would be held, a lady informed us that the room had a few desks meant for lefties and if they didn’t have enough lefties in the group, there might not be enough seats. She actually asked if anyone would be willing to take one of the lefthanded seats.

Konnie, of course, had no problem with using a seat with the desk on the left arm rather than the right. And all the lefty seats, what there were of them, were at the end of the aisles, so I got to sit next to Konnie, being a solid righty.

I just remember the way that women looked at us when Konnie announced she could use her left hand. I mean really! We’re identical, yet I am a righty. And I can imagine the reaction of her classmates when she’d be writing notes with one hand, get tired, and switch to the other for a little bit.

Sometimes I wish I could do that, but alas, I was never forced to use my nondominated hand in grade school.

Though my knowledge of lefties does help out some.

One time in college my roommates and I had several friends over for dinner, and as we were sitting down, one of the guys said he was a lefty. I had been about to take a seat at the head of the table, but the instant he said that I told him he could sit there.

All my roommates wondered why I did that while all his knew the issue.

As we sat down, he leaned over to me and asked me who I knew that was a lefty. I informed him I have two siblings who are lefties. He was shocked since he was the only lefty in his family and amazingly, he had about as many siblings as I had.

Turns out they run in my family. Remember that Facebook post I mentioned earlier? Well, several distant cousins posted on it that they were lefties! Not one, or even two, but several.

Yeah, I know more lefties than I thought.

Anyway, happy writing everyone!